Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi was born on 30 July 1943 at Villarboit, Vercelli, Italy. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1967. He holds a degree in psychology and a doctorate in canon law. In 1976 he was asked to set up a diocesan family counselling centre, of which he was director, and prompted the family apostolate. He was subsequently also president of the Piedmontese Federation of Christian Counsellors. At the beginning of 1977 he was appointed parish priest of Larizzate, an outlying district of Vercelli. In 1980 he was invited to teach canon law and psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, while retaining some of his activities in the Archdiocese of Vercelli. He obtained the title of advocate at the Roman Rota in 1981 and then became a referendary in 1985, a voter in 1990 and, finally, a member in 2007 of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, while also teaching anthropology at the Studium of the Roman Rota. In 1994, he was appointed vicar general of the Archdiocese of Vercelli. With the foundation of Cathedral Treasury Museum and the Chapter Archives, he was appointed both President, representing the Archbishop. He is a member of the administrative board of a savings bank of Vercelli. He received episcopal ordination on 26 May 2007, subsequent to his appointment as Bishop of Alessandria. Four years later he was named President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.